The complex origins of Chinese names

[Randy W]

from the SCMP, probably more than you'd ever want to know about the origins of Chinese names. but it includes some interesting tidbits

 

This has been one of our most read stories of the day so far.

Wee Kek Koon's piece basically tells you everything you've ever wanted to know about Chinese naming conventions but were probably a little bit too afraid to ask.

 

 

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The complex origins of Chinese names demystified

With more than 4,700 Chinese family names in use today, find out how the Chan in Jackie Chan dates back to 1046BC and why Bruce Lee owes his name to a plum tree

 

 

The very first Chinese family names, however, might have originated in a matrilineal society. Many of these earliest clan names, known as xing, contain the ideograph for “woman” (女), such as Ji (姬), Ying (嬴), Yao (姚), Jiang ( 姜) and so on, which are probably representative of an era between 5,000 and 6,000 years ago, when people knew who their mother was but would have been less sure of their father’s identity. The word xing (姓) is made up of two ideographs that read “born of a woman”, and a person’s xing name placed them within a kinship group that forbade marriage between its members.

. . .

The appearance of another kinship indicator, the shi (氏), was first recorded in the Zhou dynasty (1046–256BC), by which time Chinese society had become firmly patrilineal and social organisation much more complex. The shi name was essentially a subset of the xing name, and individuals might have taken one because they desired greater differentiation among themselves.

For example, imagine a noble family with Ji as their xing name and who had been conferred a few castles and the surrounding lands by their king. Their domain was, say, the state of Zheng. In time, the descendants of this noble family would have taken on the name “Zheng” as their shi name to differentiate themselves from other Ji families, elsewhere. So, a member from this family with the given name, say, Boya, would have been identified thus: “Boya, with the xing Ji and the shi Zheng”, followed by a string of aliases such as style names, courtesy names and the like.

Over generations, the descendants of this Boya might have dropped or even forgotten their xing name (Ji) and begun using their shi name (Zheng) exclusively. Some descendants might also have changed their shi names to reflect new circumstances, such as migration or acquisition of a prominent title by one of their own.

And then there were commoners without xing names but who took on shi names that identified where they lived, what they did for a living and so on. It was all very confusing!